Retail Experience Design

The retail stores and malls of our society have the need to evolve on daily basis. If in the fashion boutique stores, the large supermarkets, the entertainment industry etc. the concept of updating the in-store experience is a reality during the last years, in the traditional retail stores this has not happened yet.

Moreover, we should not forget that our cities have been developed around the concept of “botteghe” of the craftsmen. Our cities have been developed around the concept of neighborhoods.

Such large retail stores (large malls), today, most of the times are transit places, places that you just pass and do not provide you any emotional benefit and/or experience. Consumers, are “painted” like they go in a search of the minor prices, going around themselves for the offers and snatching all the promotions. Fortunately, most of the times this is not the only reality. Consumers want value and this can not be built without first creating a relationship with them.

Nowadays, consumers are always more demanding, pay more attention, they are critical and well informed with regards to what they consume. Obviously, in today’s hectic times, everybody consumes goods almost at the speed of sound. The future of the retail interiors has different needs and eventually different approaches. Our approach is the Total Consumer Experience.

Total Consumer Experience is driven by the belief that we all share the same set of finite human needs. At Dot Kite, we believe these needs are modal, competing among themselves at an individual and societal level. Total Consumer Experience is the unique combination of strategic communication and design services that are executed by our very competent and focused multidisciplinary team. In this multidisciplinary team we would like to invite you to take part. Dot Kite works as a team together in order to develop the greatest retail experiences.

5 comments to “Retail Experience Design”

This sounds really great and exactly what the retail industry needs. I worked in retail for 5+ years (fours of those years in one of those “large retail stores,” and in just those few years my store cut back employees, demanded more from those that stayed, and they still wanted us to offer great customer service. The work that, at one time, was expected of five people is now expected of one. We heard complaints from customers all the time saying they couldn’t find anyone to help them. Shortly before I quite working there a notice was sent around to all the employees asking for suggestions on how the store could save money (after many of us, me included, had gotten a pay cut for not having enough sales). Maybe they should have focused on customer service and the money would have followed.

I fully agree with you that the retail industry needs to be Re-Imagined from the bottom to the top. And as you have already said, we need to review not only the retail design but also the service retailers provide to their customers.

Obviously, a great Retail Experience is a combination of customer service, Retail Design and great in-store experience.

Thank you for your input and feel free to follow our news section because in the coming days we will expose more of our thoughts on Retail Experience Design.

thank you for contributing to this post.
Indeed, there are retailers that promote themselves as the “the lowest prices”, “the biggest discounts” or “the best deals”. Though, here at Dot Kite we believe that you can promote your company in such way but you can also provide a better Retail Experience.

In our portfolio, we have such an example where a large European consumer electronics retailer has “the best deals” but also offers a better Retail Experience through design. Design was done by Dot Kite and feel free to review sketches of this project here: http://tinyurl.com/ylsqlgn

For me, one of the best examples of a great in-store experience is Sephora. They understand that packaging alone does not sell a product but the experience. Consumers are able to play with all different types of make-up brands without pushy sales people forcing them to make a purchase. And this pays off. Just like grocery shopping when you are hungry, if you go in looking one way and leave the store feeling more beautiful, you can guarantee your customer will come back and they won’t be dissatisfied with their purchase, since they know what it looks like with their skin tone (something Walmart cannot provide).

Just a quick note on the big box discount stores, why is yellow the colour of choice for sales? It depresses me to go into them. Yellow as an accent, I understand, but the whole store? I’d rather pay full price!